The Doctor's back

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Hip, edgy, cool - the Dr Who series has been
given a makeover for the 21st century, reports Stephen
Cauchi.

As filmgoers flock to the cinemas tonight for the final
instalment of the Star Wars saga, fans of another
long-running sci-fi franchise will be staying home, eyes glued to
the TV.

The wait is over. A new episode of Dr Who will finally
be shown tonight on the ABC, 16 years since the last TV series
finished and nine since Doctor Who: The Movie, starring
Paul McGann.

And if Star Wars is drawing audiences like a Death Star
tractor beam, the new Who series has been "exterminating"
the competition in the British ratings.

The show's notoriously bad special effects have greatly
improved, thanks to computer-generated imagery. The editing is
snappy, the jokes are funny.

But most importantly, the new Doctor (played by British actor
Christopher Eccleston) is a likeable creation - decent, cheerful
and witty, although still arrogant, asexual and enigmatic. A
typical Doctor, but also very hip. No long scarf or Victorian dress
here; the leather-jacketed Eccleston, 41, looks like he's set to go
clubbing.

So the show has been funked up for the 21st century, but it does
retain the essentials of classic Who. There's the
unmistakable music and rushing vortex of the title sequence. The
blue police-box TARDIS, albeit with a dramatic interior renovation.
There's a feisty, attractive companion for the Doctor - Rose,
played by Billie Piper. The all-purpose sonic screwdriver. A
British setting for most of the earthbound action (the 1996
telemovie, unhappily, was set in San Francisco).

As for the Doctor's traditional enemies, the Master and the
Cybermen, for example, have not appeared in the episodes screened
in Britain. But the Daleks make an appearance in episode six, and
the writers have devised a way these mass-murdering oversized
pepper-shakers can invade planets that aren't fully
wheelchair-compliant.

However cross one might be with a Dalek, being cruel is not the way to deal with the issue.BRITISH BOARD OF FILM CLASSIFICATION

The violence and horror is still there; children will still hide
behind the couch. British TV campaigner and virulent Who
critic Mary Whitehouse may have passed away, but the censors aren't
any friendlier.

The British Board of Film Classification slapped a ban on
children under 12 buying DVDs of the new series. "However cross one
might be with a Dalek, being cruel is not the way to deal with the
issue," it said.

"What planet are these censors on?" asked The Times
newspaper. The "absurd ruling", it said, "takes the fun out of
Dr Who".

In a further nostalgic touch, there's even a Saturday night
timeslot - with a crucial difference. Whereas past Who
stories were usually four 25-minute weekly episodes strung
together, the new Who is one self-contained 45-minute
story, although there is the odd two-parter.

But is the new series, produced by television writer Russell T.
Davies for the BBC, any good? It has a lot to live up to. For all
the sneers about dodgy special effects, the original Who
had some cracking good stories - Pyramids of Mars, Genesis of
the Daleks, to name a few - and excellent characters,
inspiring a worldwide army of fans and an unbroken 26-year-run of
new episodes.

Tonight's opening episode - about plastic store mannequins that
come to life - is creepy and clever, with a nod to a traditional
Who villain, the Autons. The second episode - set on a
space station in the future - was not to this fan's taste.

The online reaction of British Who fanatics to the
13-part series has been mixed. Some have been critical, declaring
it to be a dumbed-down version of the original. One tradition will
certainly be continuing - that of regeneration. The Doctor, of
course, is not human but a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. To
preserve the show's continuity when the lead actor quit, producers
in the 1960s came up with the novel idea that Time Lords could
"regenerate" into a new bodily form.

Eccleston, fearing typecasting, has hung around for only one
series. The next series, which is in production, will star Scottish
actor David Tennant.

· Three previous stars of Doctor Who - Colin Baker,
Sylvester McCoy and Katy Manning - will share their experiences of
the program on stages around Australia in August.

Tim Ferguson will host the event, guiding audiences through time
with the actors and viewing BBC footage.